I discovered 25 years ago, that if you test the top 5 cm of soil from around seedlings of a native plant population, you can produce a "Reference Threshold" for the soil nutrient in PPM and the organic matter percentage needs for that species. Then, when you have a seed sowing project for that species, you do another soil soil test in the top 5 cm, and amend whatever nutrients and organic matter levels that are below the thresholds and add those to the seeds when sown. Working on producing those Reference Thresholds for 2,000 native species in the Western USA, and am asking if anyone has started this work anywhere else on the planet, when doing ecological restoration, especially of arid ecosystems? See http://www.ecoseeds.com/seed-thresholds.html for species and protocols.
See http://www.ecoseeds.com/SAGEFIX-workshop.pdf for the October 2018 workshop conducted in Carson City, Nevada about this issue, and the details about the eight tests that can be conducted to make a native planting project successful.
Agricultural scientists have spent a century attempting to measure the concentrations of 'available' nutrients in soils and found that totals are generally unhelpful
What I am asking, is matching the soil nutrients and percentage organic matter with the top 5 cm. from wild populations of a plant species where seedlings occur, and using those numbers as the Soil Nutrient Thresholds for that species. That is how we got our 100-mile pipeline north of Reno in a cheatgrass area with only 30 cm of annual rainfall, to produce 100% native cover in six months, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html - Without those thresholds known, and correcting for soil levels below those thresholds, see the seedlings die at 5 cm tall at http://www.ecoseeds.com/good.example.html
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